In the sleepy hour before breakfast, on the bus to sessions at the ABB Automation World user conference, I met the most delightful man. Tom Bassel of Graphic Equipment Corp., a maker of printing presses for packaging and other applications, was eager to get to the conference exhibit area and find out what was new. He couldn’t wait to talk to ABB engineers about the latest innovations.

When Tom found out I was with Control Engineering, he got even more excited, and offered a surprisingly enthusiastic and completely unsolicited testimonial: “Engineering is all about creativity, so I pick up Control Engineering every month just to see what’s new. I love seeing the new products!”

Such eagerness for innovation is typical of Control Engineering subscribers. That’s why the editorial and production staffs here just spent months gathering, sorting, and compiling the Control Engineering Engineers’ Choice Awards supplement that arrived with your issue. Normally delivered in January, we delayed and reorganized the awards this year to better harness the enthusiasm of guys like Tom.

A field of 113 products in 18 technology categories was narrowed down to 40 winners through online ballots sent to our subscribers. Engineers completed more than 700 ballots in which they were asked to identify the most exceptional or noteworthy products, based on three criteria: technological advancement (innovation), service to the industry (usefulness) and /or market impact (would buy it tomorrow if I could). The results of the voting are highlighted in the supplement, and a list of the almost 100 other products worthy of your attention (the nominees) is also included.

Every year, hundreds of creative and useful new products are announced, a fraction are published in these pages, and many more go out online (for folks who prefer their innovation delivered electronically). But even readers as focused as my bus-riding friend can miss a few. So take a look, and be sure to let me know which ones are winners for you. These awards highlight and honor the many automation, instrumentation and control products introduced in 2006. One might be exactly the solution you’re looking for.

renee.robbins@reedbusiness.com